Anumpa Achukma/Good News
Language Loss Can Be Reversed
2005.04
This is a newsletter dedicated to reporting the successes in revitalizing endangered languages worldwide. Share your good news with us by sending us an article about your program or current activity in revitalizing an endangered language.
Please forward this newsletter to anyone who might be interested.
Persistence, Proliferation, and Participation
Part of the Māori success is because they persist. They are determined (strong purpose) to revitalize te reo Māori and make it the language of every day life once again. Keep in mind that reversing language loss is likely to take as much time as it took for the loss to occur. Also, remember that change is the hallmark of the universe we live in, so persistence is key to maintaining ourselves as individuals and groups in all our endeavors.
Another part of the success is proliferation. While Māori kōhanga reo (language nests) has received much press, it is not the only activity being use to revitalize the language. There are also classes at universities, polytechs (like US community college), marae (a building serving a sub-hapu, a smaller division of a tribe), corporate headquarters, and high schools. Education can be obtained from pre-school through Ph.D. now through the Māori language. Children’s books, alphabet charts, and adult books are available in the language. One program (Ngāi Tahu) promotes the usage in the home. It’s an all out onslaught against the loss.
This leads me to conclude that, regardless of the number of speakers, a single approach can only be a beginning and not the final solution.
Proliferation also implies that anyone and everyone who wants to participate in revitalizing the language is allowed to do so. If a language is to survive, it must have speakers. Dr. Margaret Mauldin, Muskoke language specialist and a speaker of that language, once observed, “I don’t know who some people think they are saving the language for.”
Because of the diaspora caused by the Removal Act of 1830 (US), groups like the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek (Muskogee), and Seminole were torn apart and scattered around the US, leaving various disconnected communities. There are more Cherokee than any other group, but they are located all over the US and even in northern Mexico. This scattering resulted in great language loss. Today each group is working on revitalizing the language. Given the large numbers of potential speakers, they might want to reunite around language revitalization, thereby increasing the participation.
A similar situation exists for the Choctaw (numbering about 80,000 according to the 2000 census) with the Oklahoma Choctaw being the largest group and offering the greatest possibility of participation by offering online courses, community courses, and materials for sale to the public. Several educational institutions also offer classes—the University of Oklahoma, several high schools, and even a community college in Dallas, serving those Choctaw who landed in north Texas after the removal.
In some communities with fewer speakers, individuals have used a different approach. They have spent time with an elder learning the language. This approach allows the transmission of the language and group knowledge in a more natural way. This was part of the original idea behind kōhanga reo.
The original idea of the kōhanga reo was to have elders who spoke the language fluently to interact with young children to provide the Māori language for what the children were doing (scaffolding). The children’s mothers attended along with the children, making this an intergenerational activity. In some instances, teachers in kōhanga reo are no longer elders but adults trained in early childhood who have learned Māori as adults. Whenever possible, parents are expected to attend with their children.
Such is the case at Te Kōhanga Reo o Ngā Kūaka, located on land leased from the University of Waikato. The parents of the children attending are generally associated with the University in some way. It is one of the places I visited on my trip. Their day begins with a karakia (prayer). The curriculum not only prepares children for school activities but also prepares them for functioning in an adult culture. Praying in Māori is an expectation of that culture.
This was visible at Te Matatini, the national celebration of traditional Māori performing arts, where the celebration opened with the Lord’s Prayer in Māori. I was one of the few people who did not know the words.
Other activities include songs with movement (prepares them for kapa haka, the traditional performing arts) and general pre-school activities—learning the colors and the names of basic things, and responding to teacher questions (expected school behaviors). Movement is an aid to understanding and remembering language, so the songs with movement aid both the learning of the language and prepares them for other activities. At this particular kōhanga reo, parents were in attendance, using whatever amount of Māori language they had.
Of course, this effort alone would not accomplish the purpose of revitalizing the language. No one single way is the answer. Incorporate as many as you can to maximize participation.
Success Stories
The American Indian Languages Development Institute began in 1978 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Lucille Watahomogie and Dr. Leanne Hinton wrote the first grant proposal. The first institute was held in San Diego, CA. The original institute consisted of elders, parents, bilingual educators, and linguists from the Yuman language family, who gathered to share their knowledge. Since then it has grown to include more languages and is now housed at the University of Arizona.
Since 1990, AILDI has served over 2,000 students representing indigenous languages primarily from North America but also of the world.
For more information about this fabulous program, go to http://www.ed.arizona.edu/AILDI.
Te Ātaarangi Annual Gathering Next month the Te Ataarangi whanau (family) will be congregating in Paeroa (one hour east of Hamilton) for their AGM - Hui-a-tau. We usually have around 400 - 600 people attending from all over N.Z. Numbers have dropped in the past few years, due to travel costs being too expensive for some, or else too far to travel. The hui (gathering) begins on the Friday morning with a pohiri (traditional welcome), then kai (eating). Then once everyone has found their sleeping space in the wharenui (big house) of whichever marae they will be staying at for the duration of the hui. This will go on into the late evening. Saturday is when workshops are held and tutors from all over the country find a space to take language workshops. This goes on throughout the day. Saturday evening is po whakangahau - entertainment night, where groups from different areas get up and perform skits and/or waiata(song) from the area. Sunday involves the whanau coming together again after their sleeping areas have been tidied up and everyone has had breakfast.The lifting of Te Taonga o Te Ataarangi (which is a carved treasure chest - Waka Huia) is a special moment where the hosts of the following years AGM receive the taonga from the current hosts. This is done in a formal setting on the Marae atea - front of the wharenui. This is also a time to acknowledge the current hosts and all the hard work they have been through for the past year to raise money to fund the weekend long AGM. At the same time best wishes are given to the new hosts who have agreed to take on the huge task of holding the following years AGM.
You can read more about this approach at this address http://www.wananga.ac.nz/2004_Prog/1_contents/25TeAta_Load.html.
Or
http://www.nrc.org.nz/orgs/other%20ace/teataarangi.html
35th Anniversary of Navajo Language
Instruction
The Department of Linguistics of the University of New Mexico is celebrating 35 years of offering instruction in the Navajo Language. In fact, I took two semesters of Navajo through this department. At that time, the young instructor was using “the Silent Way” to introduce new structures to us. Since then, Roseanne Willink, Navajo instructor, has worked tirelessly to keep the program going.
To get more information about Navajo Language Program, contact Nancy Montoya nmontoya@unm.edu.
The September 2005 issue of the Comanche Language Newsletter is now on our web site (www.comanchelanguage.org) for reading/printing. Click on Language Newsletters, then scroll down to September 2005. Also, tribal member Jimmy Arterberry has a new web site at www.jimmyarterberry.com that is very interesting. Be sure and save it in your favorites!
Creative Writing in Endangered Languages
Send us one of your creative writings to put up on a new blogspot—Voices from the Earth.
Send it along with your name, the language, and a translation/explanation in one of these languages—English, Spanish, or French—so that people get the meaning.
You can send it in an email, as a MS Word document attachment, or a Rich Text Format document attachment. (Please note that some orthographies may not copy exactly, but I will try my best.)
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Ho Anumpoli! is a New Mexico non-profit organization. For more information about us, go to http://www.oocities.org/hoanumpoli
Send your success story to us at holabitubbe@gmail.com
For previous issues of Anumpa Achukma, go to http://www.oocities.org/hoanumpoli/anumpa.html
George Ann Gregory, Ph.D.
Choctaw/Cherokee
Fulbright Scholar